ATTACK OF THE KILLER RICE ?

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thesteeldeal/2006/08/frankenfood_str.html


















Frankenfood Strikes Again!
U.S. rice contaminated, government says
WASHINGTON - Some long-grain rice in the United States has been contaminated with a genetically engineered variety not approved for human consumption, the government says.
"Based upon the information we have seen," the contaminated rice "is safe," Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns said, adding he did not know where the contaminated rice was found or how widespread it was in the U.S. food supply.
The rice, known as LLRICE 601, was engineered by Bayer CropScience of Monheim, Germany, to make it resistant to a weed killer made by the agricultural giant Aventis, the Washington Post reported Saturday.
Bayer never got LLRICE 601 approved for U.S. marketing, but two other varieties of rice with the same gene were approved, so 601 is probably safe too, Johanns said.
Bayer said it was "cooperating closely" with the government in the investigation.
Johanns acknowledged the discovery could hurt rice sales - especially exports, which are worth close to $1 billion a year. Link

Of all the problems in the world today, the 'debate' over genetically altered food is the most specious and over-hyped. Gregor Mendell, the monk who discovered 'heredity/genetics', did so by manipulating the heredity of peas by introducing various different strains into a line (genetic engineering). Cavemen who domesticed wolves into dogs, selectively bred for certain traits and de-selected certain other traits - giving us the myriad of canines we have today. Genetic mutation happens all the time. A neutrino, passing through the Earth, on its way to the other side of the Universe, may just happen to collide with a little piece of genetic material and thereby alter an entire species. Mutation has been going on since BEFORE life began. That is HOW life began. The greenfreaks and ecoweenies would have us believe, that somehow, GM foods are the Devil's work. Dr. Frankenstein's creation in the vegetable patch. There are starving nations, such as Bangladesh, that refuse GM foods as aid. The whole damned argument is complete and utter bullshit. And, believe it or not, comes down, once again, to money. See, GM crops are usually hybrids and therefore cannot reproduce, That means the evil seed supplier can maintain a monopoly on their availabilty. And there is evidence, that once a GM crop gets into the neighborhood, there IS some cross pollination that invariably happens. I have yet to see any evidence that this causes a natural plant to become sterile, and in fact, I find that possibility counter intuitive. While the GM plant may be engineered to survive certain specific situations or conditions, it is, by definition, a tenuous creation - it cannot even reproduce itself. And as I have already mentioned, this sort of exchange between species DOES take place in nature. Consider the bear recently killed in Canada. A Grizzly/Polar bear mix. Or consider the horse/moose critter I wrote about recently. Just the other day, an animal was killed in Maine, which is suspected of being a wolf/dog or coyote mix. All of these occurred out there in 'NATURE'. Had any of these mixes been viable and survived and thrived - that would become the dominant strain.
So the next time some bozo laments genetic engineering - tell him to go fuck a monkey.
The resultant offspring can't be any dumber.
I ain't worried about Frankenfoods - I'm concerned about Frankenfools.